War Admiral was represented on-screen by one of his descendants, a gelding called Verboom.
The animals used to calm Seabiscuit in the film were in fact real. The stray dog was named Pocatell. A mare called Pumpkin accompanied him to every one of his races throughout his racing career.
The film portrays War Admiral as enormous, nearly 18 hands at the withers. In truth, War Admiral stood at about 15 hands — roughly the same height as Seabiscuit.
When Red Pollard is telling George Woolf how to ride Seabiscuit, he says, "Show him the stick at the quarter pole, and he'll give you a whole new gear." To 'show the stick' is to bring the whip, the crop, up close to one side of the horse's eye, with the implication that the next move might be a strike along the flank. The crop is not intended to hurt the animal; it is used to signal, "Right, NOW is the time to really go!" Many horses will quicken if given a sharp smack; others simply freeze and stop. The horse crop is not employed to injure but to provoke an adrenaline surge or, at worst, fear. A jockey who causes bleeding is likely to be penalised, potentially up to the loss of his or her licence, which effectively ends their employment.
Red Pollard affectionately referred to Seabiscuit as "Pops". That was the actual nickname Pollard gave the horse. While competing as one of the leading thoroughbred racehorses, Seabiscuit was regarded as "old".
Whilst the film never mentions it, War Admiral and Seabiscuit come from the same bloodline and are fairly closely related. A stallion named Fair Play sired Man o' War; Man o' War then sired both War Admiral and Hard Tack. Hard Tack was Seabiscuit's sire, making Seabiscuit the nephew of War Admiral.
The film never makes clear why Riddle insisted that the War Admiral-Seabiscuit match race should be run without a starting gate. War Admiral detested starting gates.
A device known as the Equicizer was employed to capture close-up action. Resembling a hobby-horse, the machine had springs, a wooden head and a carpeted body. Affectionately dubbed the 'SS Seabiscuit', it was in fact a rolling platform measuring 12 ft by 20 ft with steering wheels at both the front and the rear. It simulated the rocking motion of a galloping horse whilst itself running on rails around the track. Powered by a 454 Chevrolet engine, it could reach speeds of 40–50 mph.
When trainer Tom Smith attempts to bring a goat into Seabiscuit's stall, he is entirely correct to point out that many horses are happier when they have company (and the same is true of most mammals living with people). Pairing a horse with a goat in the same stall has long been a fairly common practice. It is also claimed that the phrase "to get one's goat" comes from the tactic of stealing a goat from a rival racehorse's stall on the night before a major race in order to unsettle the horse. That etymology is possible, but it has never been definitively proven. (The notion that a horse would neatly kick a goat out of its stall is, of course, fanciful.)
Jockey Red Pollard is shown keeping his weight down by starving himself to reach 115 pounds. This was because Seabiscuit, when young and already small, had to run in races known as handicaps. A 'handicap' is an extra weight allotted to each horse based on its past races and its assessed ability to run against horses that carry more or less weight. Many jockeys will starve themselves so their mount carries as little weight as possible — their own body weight plus the lead weights placed in the racehorse's saddle. Red Pollard, at 5'7", raced against professionals who were 5'3" — but many jockeys will go to extreme lengths if they love racing enough and are bold enough to risk their bodies.
Gary Stevens, who played the jockey George Woolf, was presented with the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1996.
It has sold in excess of 5.5 million DVD copies, the highest total ever for a drama film.
Chris Cooper was made to look older for the part. Because he was more than 25 years younger than the character he played, Cooper's hair was whitened and his hairline was shaved back to emphasise a widow's peak. Although Cooper was two years younger than Jeff Bridges, he was deliberately styled to appear older by comparison.
In scenes shot at the Santa Anita racecourse you can spot a horse statue beside the paddock. The statue is a memorial to Seabiscuit that stands at Santa Anita. Roughly 100 yards away is another statue; it honours George Woolf, the character portrayed by Gary Stevens in the film.
More than 40 horses appear in the film, with ten of them sharing the role of Seabiscuit. In a single take the horses never ran further than three furlongs, or three-eighths of a mile.
The majority of the spectators at the Pimlico race featuring War Admiral were inflatable mannequins with masks for faces, wearing long-sleeved T-shirts painted to resemble suits and plastic hats (which were supplied to all of the unpaid extras).
Fresh from playing Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire had to shed 20 lb of muscle to portray a jockey.
Gary Stevens and Chris McCarron both enjoyed successful careers as professional jockeys, with each claiming victories in the Kentucky Derby and at the Breeders' Cup. McCarron retired a couple of months before taking on the role of Charles Kurtsinger.
Director Gary Ross's six-year-old son Jack, having just watched The Rookie (2002) — John Schwartzman's previous picture — told his father that John Schwartzman ought to be the cinematographer on the film, as he loved the way it looked.
The success of Spider-Man (2002) enabled Tobey Maguire to secure a $12 million fee for the film.
The Seabiscuit/War Admiral race, originally slated for Pimlico racecourse, was actually filmed on location at Keeneland racecourse in Lexington, Kentucky. The course, together with parts of the surrounding area, underwent minor cosmetic alterations to accurately portray the period.
Although the film does not mention it, Seabiscuit and War Admiral were due to run in the Massachusetts Handicap in June 1938. Seabiscuit was withdrawn because of "fevered legs", and War Admiral finished fourth — the first time he ended up out of the money.
When trainers and jockeys describe a horse as having "a great heart" or "a noble heart", they are not speaking of bravery in the way we would of a person. They are indicating that the animal possesses a competitive temperament. A horse that has more stamina than speed may also be described as having a great heart (and this is perhaps mentioned more often in steeplechase than on the flat).
Robert Duvall declined the leading role as he was filming Secondhand Lions (2003).
Tobey Maguire adhered to a 1500-calorie daily intake to slim down to jockey size, ultimately shedding 21 lbs.
It was the only film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture that year to leave the ceremony without winning any awards.
The unspoken connection Marcela mentions at their first meeting is that she was the elder sister of the wife of his eldest son, which effectively makes her his niece by marriage. Neither that sister nor his eldest son appear in the film.
The X-ray showing Red's fractured right tibia and fibula, which the doctor and Mr Howard are discussing, has been hung the wrong way round.
The poem the young Red Pollard recites at the family's dining table is Emily Dickinson's 'We never know how high we are'.
The film's cast comprises two Academy Award winners, Jeff Bridges and Chris Cooper, and two Academy Award nominees, William H. Macy and Gary Ross.
Borden Flanagan: the boyfriend of author Laura Hillenbrand makes a cameo as the Farm Manager.
One of the horses used to portray Seabiscuit was called Popcorn Deelites. He lived out his retirement at Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky — a farm open to the public. Popcorn Deelites died in January 2022.
Ex-racing driver Allan Padelford designed and built bespoke MTV "insert" cars — Mobile Technocrane Vehicles — so film-makers could shoot insert shots for horse-race sequences. They can reach up to 45 mph and weigh 28 thousand pounds. Each vehicle can accommodate a 30-foot Technocrane dolly at the rear and a Wescam XR head at the front. Another was specifically constructed to house two animatronic horses.
The sole Best Picture nominee at that year's Academy Awards whose director did not receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director.
The 35 mm prints of this film ('The Favourite', 2003) were struck from a digital intermediate that had undergone digital grain reduction. Consequently, the prints exhibit grain-reduction artefacts throughout.
Near the close of the one-on-one race against War Admiral, Tom Smith (portrayed by Chris Cooper) mutters to himself 'turn him loose', meaning that the jockey should not restrain Seabiscuit. Chris Cooper utters the same line as Deputy Sheriff Dwayne Looney in the film A Time to Kill (1996) when asked what he believes ought to be done with Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson).
Parts of the trailer's soundtrack are sourced from the Medal of Honor video games.
This brings Tobey Maguire back together with the director of Pleasantville (1998), Gary Ross.
A 2017 Nespresso advert shows George Clooney hitching lifts with Kermit and Fozzie from The Muppet Movie (1979), places Janet Leigh in Psycho (1960), puts Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit (1977), and features John Candy in Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987). It also shows him riding Peter Fonda's motorbike from Easy Rider (1969), along with the film's eponymous horse. The thirty-second edit omits Leigh, Candy and Fonda.
This marks the debut of Jamie Lee Redmon.
Regarding the remark that Pollard could not have had his left foot in the stirrup whilst being dragged — I can confirm from personal experience that this is entirely possible.
